Improvement in drawers for cabinet furniture



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-LEVI BURNELL, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

Letters Patent No.. 109,110, dated November 8, 1870.

Men-* The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making parl; of the same.

I, Luvr BURNELL, of the cit-y and county of Milwaukee, State of Wisconsin, have invented certain Improvements pertaining to Cabinet Furniture, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates especially to drawers, its ohjcct being to sustain any drawer, however Vheavily laden, in a level position when Yfully open, and prevent that downward bearing of the same, like a level' across vcneering or other front tinisli,so eounnoiraiul damaging to ,fine furniture.

It consists of supporting-bars, one at each end of a drawer, (the length of the said bars being about equal to the lineal measurement from front to back of thc drawer,) so arranged that when the drawer is open the bars are withdrawn from the case about half their length, their forward ends in their grooves inthe ends of the drawers, and the rear ends ot thc bars in grooves in thecase.

Bars, sliding on the outer ends of drawers, for thisv same purpose, have previously been ti'ied;'but that arrangement, necessarily involving thc diminution of the capacity of the drawer, seems not 'to have been regarded with favor by manuictnrcrs.A

Aiming at simplicity of construction, and also thc `greatest possible economy of cost, I propose no change in the size nor manner of constructing bureau and other furniture drawers, except a shallow groove in certain pieces of the lumber of which the ends of the drawers are to be made, and that of such a character as will neither injure nor Ina-r the drawer whether my improvement shall thereafter be adopted or not.

Drawing.

Figure l is a pian of a portion of one end of a. drawer, understood, of course, to represent both, as do also the succeeding illustrations. Outside the drawer, in each of its upright ends, is a groove, (r. This groove, in a common-sized bureau-drawer, may be'plowed five-sixteent-hs of an inch deep.

Figure 2 is avcrtical view of the same, showing the relative 'breadth of the groove, preferably, (in an eightinch upright 4drawer,) say, two and one-half inches wide and two inches iiom the bottom of the drawer. See also in this, (as in o. 1, not before mentioncd,) at letter S, a strap four inches long, three-fourths of an inch wide, made from hoop-iron one-sixteenth of an inch thick, held in place by a screw in cach cud. The ends of this strap being sunk to the depth ot' its thickness in'to the wood at the sides of the groove, will leave one-fourth of an inch space behind it for thebar (B, ii". 3,) to slide in. 1 'lhc face of the strap may be ilush with, but not project forward of, the face of the wood; countersinkthe screw-holes so that the heads of the screws project not above the face of the strap. vThe object of this strap is two-fold, viz rst,

to keep the forward end of the supporting-bar in its groove, and, second, by catching against a projection, as pins p p, tig. 4, will, by the drawers outward movemeut, slide the bar forward to its proper place for duty.

Figure 3' is a plan of the supporting-bar, assumed, as iii the case supposed, to be about fifteeninohcs long by two and one-half inches verticalbrcadth.- Its forward portion, (about eight inches-.of its length,) from letter (t to its shoulder at letter l), is one-fourth of au inch thick, and remainder, (about seveninches ot' its length,) from itsshoulder at letter' b to its extremity at letter c, is five-sixteenth of an inch thick.

Figure #I is a vertical view of the same. p p are pins, thc location of which near the forward cud of the bar must be determined by the place ofthc strap S, which spans the groove about midway between the front and back side f the drawer. 'lhc project-ion ot' these plus must not exceed the thickness of the strap S. Incidentally they serve thc very excellent purpose of preventing thc drawer from over being drawn further than fully open, never entirely out.

Figure 5,-1) is the same as iig. l. C is a plan ot' a case for the drawer l), with its groove G" corresponding with groove (l in the drawer D. The breadth of groove G" is the same as that ofgroovc Cr; their length also may be equal; but while one-fourth otan inch horizontal depth for groove in the case is snfiicient, the depth of groove G, iu the end of the dra-wer corresponding"thereto, must be five-sixtccnths oi' an inch deep in-ordcr toatford one-fourth of an inch space for the suliporting-bar to slide behind the strap Sn Itigure h' is a vertical transverse section of saine parts shown in .3, G- and G boing grooves for the supporting-bar.

lligurc 7 is aplan oi' a drawer, l), and case (l, showing thc relation of each to thc other, and also the relation of both to the supporting-bar, together with strap S and pins p p, when thc drawer is fully open,

the forward halt' ot' the length of the supporting-bar appearing in its groove in the upright end of thc drawer, and the appropriate port-ion ot' the opposite end ot' the bar in the groove designed for it inside the case.

\Vhen a drawer-ease has pilasters, as bureaus coinuionly have, also wheira drawer is shorter than the breadth (from right to Ale.1"t).of the case, instead ot` grooves in the sides of the case, theywill of course have to be madcin the rails' iu'uncdiatcly contiguous to the ends of the drawers.

Although I have not discriminated between the measurements ot' grooves and the bars which areto slide therein, allowance is of course required to pro-` vide for the free sliding forward and back of the bars in their respective grooves.

Supporting-bzu's, for the purpose here contemplated,

may he made of iron or steel, to he narrower and thinner than if made of wood, though not preferably.

Such bars may be of uniform thickness from end to slide into their appropriate grooves in J[he ends of the drawers.

\Vhen the drawer is about half its extent into the case draw the supporting-bars forward, place the straps intheir recesses, make them fast with their screws, and the work is done.

To take a drawer entirely out of its ease relieve the straps S by removing the screws from Jshe ends of thel same, and the drawer is at liberty.

elaim as my invention- 1. The combination of the drinn-described supporting-hars B with furniture drawers by means of grooves G in the ends of said drawers, and opposite grooves G" in the casing of the saine, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

.2. rlhe combination of the embracing-straps S with i the supporting-bars B and the pins 1) p, or their equivalent, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

LEVI BURNELL.

\Vitnesses G. E. WEISS, EDWARD SIMPSON,

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